MAHABHARATA

The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India . Traditionally, the authorship of the Mahabharata is attributed to the great sage Veda Vyasa, also known as Krsna Dvaipayana.

With about one hundred thousand verses, long prose passages, or about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahabharata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined or about four times the length of the Ramayana.

It has been called Mahabharata due to the immense size and its dealing with the story of the people of the race descended from the ancient emperor Bharata, culminating in the war.

Santanu, king of Hastinapura, was married to the beautiful Ganga, who was the river goddess in disguise . She agreed to live with him as long as he never questioned her actions . She left him, along with

his 8th son “Bhisma”, after he questioned about drowned 7 sons .

Shantana married again with Satyavati, mother of Vyasa, but the conditions of the marriagewere that the second wife would be the mother of a king someday . Honoring his father's wishes, Bhishma makes his vow, guaranteeing that neither he nor a son of his will challengethe claim to the throne.

Bhishma abducted 3 sisters, Amba, Ambika, and Ambalika. Later Amba was left to her city but her betrothed abandoned, so shereturned to Bhishma asked him to marry her. Ever faithful to his vow,

Bhishma refused . Amba then vowed that one day she would kill him.

There are no other men in the family besides Bhishma, and he has renounced women . So Satyavati, the king's second wife, asks her first-born son, Vyasa the poet, to give children tothe two princesses, Ambika and Ambalika.

The princesses disliked him, for as an ascetic who has taken a vow of poverty, he was filthy and smells . He explained to them that the first child would be born blind because the 1st princess closed her eyes when seeing him, and the 2nd child will be pale-skinned because the 2nd princess became pale at his touch.

Ambika gave birth to the blind son called Dhritarashtra, and Ambalikagave birth to the pale one called Pandu.

DhritarashtraDhritarashtra PanduPandu

Pandu shoots a gazelle of a brahmin, so he cursed him that should Pa ndu mak e love to

either of his two wives (Kunti and Madri), he would die instantly. Pandu resigns the throne, and goes to live with his wives in the mountains .

Kunti, his first wife, informs him that she possesses a magic power, and three sons are bornto her : Yudhisthira, the first-born, truthful and virtuous, son of the god Dharma,

Bhima, the strongest of men, son of Vayu, god of the wind and the elder brother of Hanuman.

and Arjuna, an irresistible warrior, son of Indra .

Madri, Pandu's second wife, makes use of this power too . She gives birth to twin sons, Nakula and Sahadeva . Thanks to his two wives, Pandu now has five sons directly descended from the gods, the Pandavas, the heroes of the epic.

Years later, Pandu one day surrenders to his passion for Madri . Fearing for his life, Madri tries to push him away but her struggles only inflame his desire more . Once they make love,Pandu falls dead, fulfilling the curse, and Madri, devoted to him always, joins him on the funeral pyre.

After Pandu died, Dhritarashtra has become king, despite his blindness . He weds Gandhari in an arranged marriage.

After an abnormally long pregnancy of two years, she gives birth to a ball of flesh . Vyasa tells Gandhari to split up the ball into 100 parts and put them in jars of ghee ; in this way she becomes the mother of one hundred sons, the Kauravas and one daughter.

DuryodhanaDuryodhana

Dhritarashtra is told that his first son brings hate and destruction into the world . He will one day destroy their race . Vidura urges the king to get rid of the child, but the kingignores his advice .

Dhritarashtra is a weak ruler . He allows physical blindness to become a refusal to face reality and unwillingness to confront hard decisions, being easily led by Duryodhana in later years.

Kuru

ShantanuGanga Satyavati Parashara

VyasaBhisma Ambika Ambalika

Dhritarastra PanduKunti Madri

Yudhisthira

Bhima

Arjuna

Nakula

Sahadeva

Gandhari

Duryodhana

Dussala

Dushasana

98 Sons

Summary of the Family Tree

Karna

Bhisma advised Dhritarashtra to declare Yudishthira as the crown prince of Hastinapur since he was the eldest and endowed with fine qualities of a king.

Out of anger, Duryodhana planned to kill the Pandavas so that he can ascend the throne of Hastinapur.

The Pandavas narrowly escape a plot by Duryodhana to burn them in a house made of highly flammable materials . For months afterward, they live in the forest.

The Pandavas attend the swayamvara of Draupadi, a ceremony where she will pick her husband from a number of suitors . Arjuna wins the archery contest easily and Draupadi chooses him.

When Arjuna announces to his mother that he has won the “prize,” Kunti tells him to share with his brothers, before seeing Draupadi . Like an irrevocable vow, her statement, can’t be undone, so all five brothers marry Draupadi, the daughter of Drupada.

As tension mounts between the cousins, Krishna makes his appearance . It is said he may be an incarnation of the god Vishnu, the preserver, come down to save the earth from chaos .

On Krishna's advice the Pandavas present themselves to the blind king . To make peace, Dhritarashtra offers them half the kingdom, but in a region which was nothing but jungle and desert . Yudhisthira accepts his offer in the hope of averting a war.

Living in their new territory of Indraprastha, Yudhishthira turns poor land into a wealthy kingdom, and declares himself King of Kings . Duryodhana is jealous and humiliated on his visit to the magnificent palace

Duryodhana follows the advice of his uncle, the cunning Shakuni, an infamous dice player, and invites Yudhishthira to a game, knowing full well that gambling is his cousin's one weakness . Yudhishthira accepts.

Yudhishthira wagers and loses all that he possesses : his lands, his kingdom, his brothers, even himself, and eventually Draupadi, who is dragged before the company by her hair, a special insult since a married woman’s hair was sacred.

Duryodhana seeks to entice her by uncovering his thigh . Draupadi is about to be stripped naked when she invokes Krishna, who comes to her rescue and creates an endless supply ofcloth around her. She swears that one day she will be avengedShe swears that one day she will be avenged..

Duryodhana insists on one more throw of the dice . Yudhishthira agrees to a final game, but once again, he loses .

The Pandavas and Draupadi are condemned to spend twelve years in exile in the forest, and a thirteenth year in an unknown place, disguised so that no one may recognize them . If anyone does, then they must spend another twelve years in exile.

For the twelve years of living in the forest, preceding the great war .The Pandavas are not alone in the wilderness but are followed by many loyal brahmins and servants . The gods give them an inexhaustible plate of food to feed all of them.

Draupadi and Bhima reproach Yudhisthira for his inaction and resigned passivity . Since it is obvious that Shakuni cheated at dice, wouldn't it be better to stand up and fight? Yudhishthira flatly refuses . He will keep his word : he resolves to follow his dharma.

Arjuna then leaves, aiming for the highest mountains to look for the celestial weapons theywill need during the war . He meets the god Shiva who gives him powerful weapons . Arjunathen spends five years with his father the divine Indra learning to use the weapons fighting demons.

One day, four of the Pandavas are killed by drinking the water from a poisonous lake .However Yudhishthira brings his brothers back to life by correctly answering the questions which Dharma, disguised as a crane, puts to him.

Meanwhile Duryodhana has launched an attack on Virata's kingdom .Draupadi, who seekswar with the Kauravas at all costs, points out Arjuna as the world's best charioteer. Arjunacannot refuse to fight and is decisively victorious, one man against countless armies.

Duryodhana refuses to give his cousins back their kingdom because he claims they came out of hiding before the appointed time .

Krishna offers Arjuna first choice : either he can have all of Krishna’s armies, or he can haveKrishna alone . Arjuna chooses Krishna, allowing Duryodhana to have the armies . When Arjuna asks him to drive his chariot, Krishna accepts.

Dhritarashtra sends an envoy to Yudhisthira and begs not to fight since he loves righteousness . Yudhisthira responds that each caste has its own duty, and he is a warrior/king, not a brahmin/beggar .

Krishna pleads with Dhritarashtra one last time to restore to the Pandavas their rightful kingdom.

Duryodhana convinces himself that since the gods had not blessed the Pandavas thus far, they would not protect them during the war . “I can sacrifice my life, my wealth, my kingdom, my everything, but I can never live in peace with the Pandavas.”

Duryodhana , was unwilling to restore the Pandavas to their half of the kingdom when thethirteen years had expired . Both sides then called upon their many allies and two large armies arrayed themselves on 'Kuru's Field'

The Kauravas have eleven divisions to stand against the seven of the Pandavas . The two armies are described as two oceans, crashing against each other.

Both sides agree to abide by certain rules of war : no fighting humans with celestial weapons, no fighting at night, do not strike someone who's retreating or unarmed, or on the back or legs . All these rules will eventually be broken.

Arjuna thinks before he acts . Arjuna hesitates before such killing, wanting to retreat fromlife and responsibility (tension between dharma and moksha).

Krishna then reveals his divine, universal nature to Arjuna in a magnificent vision of a multitude of gods, stretching out to infinity .

Krishna tells him as a warrior it's his dharma to fight . The real conflict today is with the self on the “battlefield of the soul.

Resolved now to perform his duty to his lord, Arjuna leads his troops into battle.

Before the battle, Yudhishthira goes to both his teachers, Bhishma and Drona : “I bow to you . We will fight with you . Please grant us your permission and give us your blessing.” For this sign of respect, both men pray for the Pandavas’ victory, even though they must out of loyalty fight on the side of the Kauravas.

On the first day, Bhisma leads the Kuaravas army to enter the battle and he wins the war.

No one cannot fight with Bhisma, because he was blessed with the power to choose his time of death.

Ajuna was advised to bring Sikhandi at the front line of army. The next day, confronted by Sikhandi, Bhishma refuses to fight a woman, and he abandons his weapons . Bhisma is shot by thousands of arrows . In fact, Sikhandi is the reincarnation of Amba, who cursed Bhisma.

Drona takes command instead, but later Drupada's son Dhrishtadyumna cuts off Drona's head, having sworn to avenge his father's humiliation.

Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, fought bravely at the battle. Later he was killed by the Karavas, because Jayadratha tries to fight with Ajuna and he could not help his son.

When Arjuna beheads Jayadratha, he does it so skillfully that the head falls straight into the lap of his father who was sitting under a tree . His father is shocked and stands up, causing Jayadratha's head to fall to earth . Thus his father is killed immediately.

Duryodhana asks Karna to avenge his brother Duhsasana, and he finally meets Arjuna in the decisive confrontation. As he struggles to

release his chariot, he cries out to Arjuna, b ut Krishna commands Arj una to shoot, and Karna dies.

Bhima kills most of the 100 Kauravas, who were demons incarnate.

The war spent for 18 days long between the Pandavas army and the Kauravas army.

Ever the gambler, Yudhishthira tells Duryodhana that he can fight any brother he chooses, and if he wins, the kingdom will be his again . Duryodhana choose to fight with Bhima

Bhima wins only by treacherously striking Duryodhana on the legs. Duryodhana died.

Krishna reveals that the gods allowed this war to relieve Earth of her great burden (similar to Troy ). Duryodhana was the incarnation of Kali, lord of the 4th age.

After the Pandavas won the war, they all come to see Bhisma’s body laying on the arrow. Bhisma lies on a bed of arrows and waits for the

right moment to shed his mortal coil

In his dying speech, pierced by many arrows, Bhishma tells Yudhishthira, “If one fights against trickery, one should oppose him with trickery . But if one fights lawfully, one should check him with dharma ...

One should conquer evil with good . Death by dharma is better than victory by evil deeds.” He asks Yudhishthira to rule the kingdom.

Yudhishthira reports the death toll at six million within 18 days .Appalled at such losses, he has a personal crisis similar to Arjuna before the battle . He doesn't want to rule because it requires the use of force and more violence.

In the years that follow the war Dhritarashtra and his queen Gandhari , and Kunti , the mother of the Pandavas, lived a life of asceticism in a forest retreat and died with yogic calm in a forest fire.

Krishna Vasudeva departed from this earth thirty-six years after the war.

When they learned of this, the Pandavas believed it time for them to leave this world too and they embarked upon the 'Great Journey,' which involved walking north toward the polar mountain, that is toward the heavenly worlds, until one's body dropped dead.

Yudhishthira arrives at the entrance to paradise, carrying a dog in his arms . His brothers and Draupadi, who left the earth with him, have fallen from the mountains into the abyss along the way.

One by one Draupadi and the younger Pandavas died along the way until Yudhishthira wasleft alone with a dog that had followed him all the way.

A gatekeeper tells him to abandon the dog if he wants to enter paradise . He refuses to leavea creature so faithful, and is permitted to enter, for this was a test, the dog was the god Dharma in disguise.

In paradise, Yudhisthira saw his enemies are there, smiling and contented. He decides to stay with his loved ones, Draupadi in hell, rather than enjoy the delights of heaven with his enemies . This too was a test, the “final illusion.” They are all permitted to enter paradise.

Thank You Very MuchSompong Yusoontorn